Fascia and Soffit Metalwork in Hixson, TN
Aluminum cladding over the boards behind and beneath your gutter, so the painting stops being an every-few-years job. It is a covering, not a cure.
The basics
What Fascia and Soffit Metalwork Is
The fascia is the board running along the roof edge that your gutter hangs on. The soffit is the panel closing the gap underneath, between that board and the wall. On most houses both are timber, and both get painted.
Metalwork means cladding them in formed aluminum, color matched, so the timber underneath stops being exposed to weather and you stop repainting it.
It is worth being clear about what that does and does not achieve. Cladding protects what is there. It will not restore anything that has already started to break down, and wrapping over bad timber only hides the problem until it is worse.
The front edge
Fascia Wrap and Capping
The fascia takes the worst of it. It sits directly under the roof edge, it is what the gutter is screwed into, and anywhere the gutter has ever overflowed it has been getting soaked.
Wrapping is a formed sheet bent to the profile of the board and fixed so water runs off it rather than sitting behind it. Done properly the join sits where rain cannot drive into it, which matters more than the material itself.
Done badly it traps moisture against the timber and quietly accelerates everything you were trying to prevent. The difference between the two is entirely in where the joins and the laps end up sitting.
The underside
Soffit Panels and Keeping Vents Clear
The soffit is doing a quieter job than people realize. On a lot of houses it is how air gets into the roof space, which is what stops the roof deck cooking in summer and sweating in winter.
So the thing that matters when cladding a soffit is not the finish. It is whether the airflow that was there before is still there afterwards.
If your existing soffit is vented, what goes over it has to be vented too, and the openings have to line up rather than merely exist. Sealing a roof space up is an expensive mistake that takes a couple of years to show.
Being straight about it
What Metalwork Will Not Fix
Cladding a board and replacing one are two different trades, and only the first of them is ours. That distinction matters more here than on any other job we do, because the entire point of metalwork is that it covers things up.
If a board is spongy under a screwdriver, lifting at the ends, or has gone dark and crumbly where the gutter has been leaking into it, cladding is the wrong answer. The timber needs replacing first, by somebody who does that work, and then it is worth wrapping.
You will get that assessment plainly, including when it means we are not the trade you need right now. It is a short conversation and it saves you paying twice.
Questions
Fascia and Soffit Questions
Will wrapping fix a board that has already gone?
No, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling you something. Aluminum over failing timber seals moisture in rather than keeping it out, so the decay carries on out of sight.
The honest order is: replace what has failed, then clad what is left. Done the other way round you pay for the metalwork twice.
What is the actual benefit?
Mainly that you stop painting. A timber fascia on a two-story elevation is an awkward, recurring job that most people put off until the board has suffered for it.
The secondary benefit is that the gutter line looks finished. Fresh gutter against gray flaking timber never quite does.
Can it be done without taking the gutters off?
The soffit usually can. The fascia generally cannot, because the gutter is fixed through the exact board being covered.
Which is why it is worth bundling with gutter work rather than booking as a standalone job later.
Does the color have to match the gutter?
It does not have to, and quite often it should not. Matching everything can flatten a roofline, whereas a trim color against a different gutter can pick out the detail.
Worth holding samples against the wall in daylight before deciding.
Will it stop birds getting into the roof?
Closing the gaps along an eave makes it a great deal harder for anything to squeeze in, and people do notice the difference afterwards.
That is a side effect rather than the purpose. Any vent that has to stay open stays open, so this is not a way of sealing a roof against wildlife.
Not sure if yours is salvageable?
Describe the state of the boards and we will tell you straight.
423-762-5904Where we work
Fascia and Soffit Service Area
Based in Hixson, Tennessee, and working across southeast Tennessee and into north Georgia.
- Hixson
- Chattanooga
- Cleveland
- Signal Mountain
- Red Bank
- Soddy-Daisy
- Ooltewah
- East Ridge
- Collegedale
- Lookout Valley
- Spring City
- Jasper
- Dunlap
- Pikeville
- Monteagle
- Grundy County
- Chickamauga, GA
- Ringgold, GA
Pages for the areas we are asked about most
Somewhere else on the list, or near it? Call 423-762-5904 and ask.
Request a Fascia and Soffit Estimate
Mention whether you are already having gutter work done. Bundling the two is what makes this worth doing.
Or call 423-762-5904